Features & insight
Features and insight
Expert analysis, reporting and long reads on the platforms, people and strategies shaping social media.
Google Images just cloned Pinterest's interface (and where your content lives has changed)
Google rolled out a Pinterest-style feed for Google Images on 14 July 2026, complete with personalised discovery, collections, and AI image generation. The shift turns image search into a browsing destination and changes how visual content gets discovered outside social platforms.
TikTok Custom Creator Networks let brands build permanent creator rosters
TikTok's new Custom Creator Networks allow brands to build and manage permanent groups of creators, employees, and partners for recurring campaigns, replacing one-off searches with ongoing collaboration inside Content Suite.
Pinterest opens Amazon Storefront linking for creators with automatic affiliate tracking
The update landed in June and eliminates manual link work for affiliate creators, while surfacing Amazon storefronts directly on Pinterest profiles. It marks Pinterest's most direct creator monetisation play since Creator Rewards ended in 2022.
LinkedIn's creative suite solves the variant bottleneck that tanks most small business ad campaigns
The platform rolled out five AI tools on 1 July 2026, with internal data showing campaigns running five or more ad variants see 20% higher click-through rates. The real unlock isn't the automation. It's what small teams can finally test.
Instagram Instants adds video recording two months after photo-only launch
The ephemeral DM feature launched in May with photos alone. Video went live in July, closing a gap that made the format feel incomplete and pushing Instagram deeper into Snapchat's territory.
The FTC just made fake reviews and misleading influencer work a $750,000 problem
This week's TruHeight settlement shows that brands using undisclosed endorsements, employee-written reviews, and AI-generated social proof now face six-figure penalties. The days of warnings are over.
LinkedIn Advice Sessions turns profiles into storefronts as platform monetises expert consultation
Currently beta-testing in the US, the feature lets Premium Business subscribers charge for video consultations without leaving the platform. LinkedIn takes no cut, but the question is whether it can compete with the workflows professionals already trust.
Threads flair tags: the granular interest signal hiding inside communities
Meta rolled out community flair tags across Threads on 14 July. The subtopic labels look like a navigation aid for users, but for brands the real value is the declared interest data now feeding the algorithm at 500 million users.
What the FTC's tighter influencer disclosure rules actually mean for your workflow
The 2023 FTC Endorsement Guides redefined 'clear and conspicuous' disclosure. Now, with enforcement ramping up through 2026 and penalties reaching $51,744 per post, brands and social professionals need to treat compliance as infrastructure, not an afterthought.
US lifts TikTok federal device ban after ownership deal closes, but agencies still decide
The Justice Department ruled that TikTok's new American majority ownership structure eliminates the risks behind the 2022 federal device ban, yet the decision hands control back to individual agencies. The shift opens questions about government marketing channels and what changes when platform risk becomes platform opportunity.
EU ditches blanket ban in favour of phased social media access for under-13s
Von der Leyen confirmed supervised-only access for children below 13 after experts rejected an Australian-style ban, putting platforms and brands on notice across 27 member states as enforcement tightens by autumn.
LinkedIn 360Brew kills engagement pods as saves and depth score replace likes in new AI ranking system
Views down 50%, engagement down 25%, and LinkedIn's new 360Brew AI ranking system now penalises engagement pods and surface-level metrics while rewarding saves (5x more reach than likes) and dwell time, fundamentally breaking the tactics B2B marketers used through 2025.
Reddit completes its performance marketing pivot with dual attribution and AI shopping ads
The platform now offers unified first-party, MMP and SKAN reporting alongside Shopping Listing Ads built around community conversations. For advertisers tracking lower-funnel results, the measurement gap Reddit has struggled with for years just closed.
TikTok launches Article sticker for news publishers on iOS
The platform has quietly rolled out a feature allowing media brands to link written journalism directly from video posts, giving publishers their first dedicated distribution format built specifically for news content.
LinkedIn now tracks out-of-network reach: why B2B marketers finally have the one metric that actually matters
LinkedIn is rolling out a metric that splits post reach into in-network and out-of-network, showing how much of your audience is actually new. For B2B social teams, it's the first time you can tell whether a post broke beyond your existing bubble or just circulated to the same 400 people.
TikTok Shop is now the fourth-largest US beauty retailer, passing Target and Costco at $4.4bn
In just three years, TikTok Shop has taken $4.4bn in US beauty sales and overtaken legacy retailers, growing 107% year-on-year while Amazon beauty grew 24%. For brands still treating it as an awareness channel, the market has already moved: beauty ecommerce in America now runs on affiliate creators, not shelves.
TikTok Pro Events turns the FIFA World Cup into a shopping channel with Stars and merchandise drops
TikTok's standalone event app debuts with collectible cards, live rewards, and in-app merchandise redemption. If it works at the World Cup, every major cultural moment becomes a monetised TikTok spin-off.
Creators take their $250bn industry to Washington as Congress begins to listen
The first Creator Advocacy Day saw 35 creators and industry leaders meet lawmakers to push for healthcare, tax reform, and AI protection as the US creator economy fights for recognition beyond the TikTok dancers stereotype.
Top 1% of creators now take 21% of all brand payments as middle tier gets squeezed
New CreatorIQ data shows payment concentration accelerating faster than anyone predicted. The median campaign fee fell to $3,000 while brand investment jumped 171%, creating the sharpest barbell the creator economy has ever seen.
Twitch opens monetisation globally and rewards subscriber retention over viral spikes
The platform is letting every streamer access subs and Bits from day one while Partner Plus now pays 70/30 to creators who hold recurring audiences, not those chasing gift-bomb hype trains.
YouTube Shorts ditches thumbs down for hearts: what the feedback shift means for creators
YouTube replaced binary like/dislike buttons with a heart icon and granular "Not Interested" controls in early July 2026. The change isn't cosmetic: it's a bet that clearer feedback signals will sharpen the algorithm and tell creators what dislikes never could.
EU to require platforms prove safety by design before allowing under-13s access
Ursula von der Leyen announced July 13 that the EU will pursue phased, age-gated social media rules this autumn, shifting the burden of proof to platforms rather than imposing Australia-style blanket bans. The approach marks a significant regulatory shift for how brands can reach younger European audiences.
TikTok splits inbox into Personal and Professional as creators professionalise
The platform's new two-inbox system gives creators dedicated tools for brand communications and follower management, marking its clearest signal yet that the creator economy is now a business infrastructure play.
Media properties overtake software tools in creator economy M&A for first time
Seventy deals in the first half of 2026 show buyers want audiences, not just infrastructure. The shift points to a fundamental revaluation of what's defensible as AI erodes software moats.